Big helping hand for lottery funding

Published 19 Aug 2010 11:30

Local groups in Ayrshire will find out how they could benefit from a share of £400 million of National Lottery money when the Big Lottery Fund comes to town on 22 September.

The Big Lottery Fund team will be on hand at the St Kentigern's Church, Dunbar Drive, Kilmarnock between 10am and 4pm to provide practical advice and support for local groups who want to explore an idea for funding, need advice on how to make a good application or simply want to find out more about the Big Lottery Fund in Scotland. The event is part of a three month tour of Scotland between August and October, during which BIG will deliver over 40 information sessions in partnership with local authorities and Scotland’s CVS network.

Over the next five years, the Big Lottery Fund, the largest of the National Lottery good cause distributors, has £400 million to invest in Scotland’s communities with the majority of that funding flowing through its multi-million pound fund, Investing in Communities. Through Investing in Communities Scottish organisations can apply for up to five years of funding for projects designed to help communities and individuals most in need. The target areas for investment include supporting local communities to acquire or develop their own assets, supporting vulnerable adults back into work and improving the quality of life for disadvantaged Scottish families.

On 22 September, Ayrshire groups will be able to find out how to apply to Investing in Communities as well as all of the Big Lottery Fund’s other grant schemes including its popular small programmes: Awards for All, 2014 Communities and Investing in Ideas. As well as presentations on all of BIG’s funding programmes, groups will also be able to speak to Big Lottery Fund funding advisors about project ideas and get further advice.

Any local group wanting to book a place should email the Big Lottery Fund at: bigscotlandinfodays@biglotteryfund.org.uk before 15 September.

Big Lottery Fund Scotland Chair, Alison Magee, said: “When we relaunched our flagship funding programme, Investing in Communities, we made a commitment to providing our applicants with more contact, support, help and advice at an early stage of the application process. These Big Information Events are just one of the many ways in which we hope to achieve this.

“For us it is vitally important that Lottery funding is available to communities across Scotland and that local people get the support they need to submit stronger applications for funding. By touring the country over the next few months we hope to be able to meet as many of these potential applicants as possible including a wide range of community and voluntary groups. So if you are a group with an idea for Lottery funding, you need advice on how to make a good application or you simply want to find out more about the Big Lottery Fund in Scotland then the Big Information Day is for you.”

Tweet

Follow @cumnockchron

Return to the main index, get more from this section or browse our News archives.